November 25, 2011 – Sirach 28

“Watch your mouth”. I have heard that warning many times in my life. Most the time I earned it. Probably even more times I thought to myself, “How can I watch my mouth”, because I tend to be a smart-aleck. But they really are words of wisdom. Here we see God’s warning that we should watch our mouth. The words we speak have a great power to them and they are not something we can control when they leave. How many people have been brought down by the words they speak (or in Gov. Perry’s case the words they didn’t say). With so many types and means of conversation and medias out there, our words have even more power, for good and for ill. I like to think of this blog as a source of good, that my words are positive and have good reactions. The web is a tool to get these words out to more people than I could have ever done before. But there are many who use these same tools to spread words that are not positive and in worse cases are meant to cause harm. Once those words get out, they are uncontrollable. You not only know who will read or hear them, but you cannot control how people with interpret or use them. We put fences around our yards, lock our doors, put money in the bank, but we do almost nothing to protect ourselves from the words that come out of our mouths. And it can happen in an instant and can scar for a lifetime. I know of things I have said that have gotten me into trouble and things people have said to me that have cut me to the bone. Words are powerful and cannot be erased. Please, think before you speak and “watch your mouth.